By Jonathan Friedman
Associate Editor

July 31, 2015 -- As Santa Monica nears implementation of its new bike share program, the City Council on Tuesday approved a financial penalty for people who lock bikes to racks designated for the program. 

But City officials said the goal would be to educate people about the rule first.

The testing phase for the bike share program, called Breeze, will begin in August, and a full launch will take place in November. 

With the program, people can grab bikes at one of more than 70 stations in Santa Monica and Venice for a one-time or monthly fee. The bikes can be returned to any station.

Only bikes that are part of the program can be placed on the Breeze racks. Violators will have their bikes impounded and be forced to pay a $50 fine plus an unspecified release fee.

Senior Planner Liz Bar-El told council members that those who break this rule will be given warnings during the first three months of the program through “friendly notices” placed on bikes

“We want to have a lot of outreach and avoid [fines] to the greatest extent possible,” Bar-El said.

But some council members were concerned about having any fines at all.

“If we want to be a bike-friendly city, probably towing people’s bikes away and charging people 50 bucks to get them back is not the friendliest thing we can do,” Councilmember Gleam Davis said.

She added, “However, the vision of a police car with a bike being towed behind it is somewhat amusing.”

Bar-El said she expected illegal parking at the Breeze stations to be rare because there would be many cues that they were not ordinary racks. She added that police would not be actively looking for violators.

Councilmember Pam O’Connor said City staff could ask officials from municipalities with existing bike share programs about how they handle this issue and how common the problem is. 

O'Connor said she expected most people would not knowingly violate the law.

“Our overall philosophy is we educate, we seek compliance and we only penalize if there is no other option,” O’Connor said.

Despite some concern, the council unanimously approved an amendment to the municipal code that implements the rules on bike parking at the Breeze racks, including the financial penalty.  

Also at the meeting, the council approved a municipal code amendment allowing the City to dedicate certain parking garages and lots for an upcoming car share pilot program.

The council authorized the program in 2012, and the next year picked Hertz as a partner. But Hertz “became non-responsive during the contract negotiations,” and the City is looking for a new partner. 

Santa Monica officials are collecting proposals for the care share program partnership through Monday.